The current crisis is rooted in the failure to recognize that the West - and its illusion of triumph coming out of the Cold War - lacked the leadership and the vision to recognize that an extended crisis of governance at both national and international levels would emerge from the collapse of the post-1945 system. The rise of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher - as apologists for vacuous anti-state rhetoric - set the stage for globalization in subsequent decades of a range of activities - including corruption arising from the weakening and failure of states.

One is reminded of the biblical injunction: Proverbs 22:8"He who sows iniquity will reap vanity, And the rod of his fury will perish."

Shlomo Ben-Ami says, Russian propaganda, disinformation campaigns, electoral meddling, manipulation etc. in recent years would not have been successful, were the liberal order in the West not in a crisis mode. The problem the West faces is mostly “homegrown – nurtured by its leaders’ own failure to confront effectively the challenges of globalization” and address economic grievances of their citizens. Following signs of Russian meddling in the 2016 Brexit vote and the nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in the UK, the author wants to show an example for Russia’s special interest in Britain and highlights the famous Zinoviev letter of 1924, believed to have helped bring down the first Labour government, led by Ramsay MacDonald. The Labour party needed to prove that they were fit for government and therefore tried to distance themselves from the British Communist Party and anything associated with the 'Red Menace'.However, members of the Conservative Party were outraged by a proposed trade treaty between the Labour Government and the USSR. These negotiations were the cause for MacDonald losing a vote of confidence. He was forced to call an election after just ten months in office. Four days before the general election, the Zinoviev Letter, apparently sent by the head of Soviet propaganda Grigori Zinoviev, was leaked to the Daily Mail newspaper. The letter stated that Great Britain should be prepared for an armed revolution.The article implied links between the Labour government and the USSR. The Labour Party lost the election to the Conservatives in a landslide. Questions still persist today regarding the letter’s authenticity and the identity of the leaker, and remain a mystery. Many in the Labour party believed it was a Conservative lawmaker or another official in the Secret Intelligence Service who leaked the letter and possibly even forged it for political gains. There was also some suspicion that anti-communist 'White Russian' groups might have had a hand. The author says, Russia is unlikely to “pose an existential threat to Western democracy,” because Putin knows that it is no longer a superpower. It has an economy the size of Italy and extremely dependent on fossil fuel exports. But Putin can be “a dangerous spoiler,” who sees geopolitics as a zero-sum contest, in which he has little to lose. His nefarious games aim to destabilise the West and bolster his standing at home. In his eyes, the West has consistently sought to humiliate or pose a threat to Russia. Yet it does not mean that our liberal democracy is “safe.” To secure it, European leaders “must confront their own shortcomings” and get their house in order. Apart from bringing the economy back on track, they also need to focus on “upgrading institutions, improving democratic accountability, reducing economic and social inequality, and striving to ensure that globalization works for all.” These are issues that had “fuelled support for populists of the right and left,” as a result of mainstream politicians’ “ethical and political failures” to manage the 2008 global financial crisis and hold the crooked bank executives to account etc. While Putin takes delights in seeing the EU weakened by divisions and crises, and NATO crippled, even if he can not fully restore Russia’s former glory and global influence, his hybrid warfare had helped Trump get elected, divided the UK, and enabled the rise of populism across Europe. The author says many Britons would not have rallied behind the Brexit cheerleaders, had they not been manipulated by tabloids owned by Murdoch and Lord Rothermere. Meanwhile Americans would not have elected “the most uneducated and mendacious presidential candidate in US history” had they not “blindly” believed Trump’s “flagrant lies.” It is true that the Soviet Union was a “formidable” force, but “it ended up collapsing under the weight of its own economic failure.” Unfortunately Putin will most unlikely tackle Russia’s “internal problems – not just economic stagnation, but also demographic decline” – because he is a warrior and not a leader who puts the country’s interests ahead of his own ego.

Excellent article. The author does not mention the greatest threats to the EU, which come the ME and Africa. The population explosions and conflicts in the Islamic world. On Russia: the west failed to help Russia, when they were on their knees in 1998, and other communist countries to develop democracy, human rights and market economy. So a normal relation never developed.

The forces at work undermining economies and democracies are not well understood. We are living in an age where automation and the internet are lowering labor cost while monopolies squelch competition that would compensate for this by reducing the price of goods. This deadly combination of information technology and monopoly is a much more important contributor to inequality than globalization.

The resultant financial stress on working families is radicalizing our politics as they search ever more frantically for economic security. In the US, over 50% of K-12 students now qualify for school lunch subsidies. Here in Sarasota, FL we have over 42 high end condos and boutique hotels under construction. Yet 30% of the families in the county skip one or more meals a month to make ends meet.

Having said this, one should not underestimate the influence of a country which has a capability to mobilize proceeds from the sale of vast riches of Siberia in the service of militarization, aggression against neighbors, and support for fascist ideas throughout Europe. What is in the article and what is in here are complementary, not mutually exclusive threats. It was thus during the Cold War and, unfortunately for the future of Russia, it is thus all over again today.

Good 'ol Ms. Hillary and her 33k deleted, whitewashed emails from her personal server....Barack Hussein Obama sending unmarked US taxpayer currency in the middle of the night to Tehran and millions and millions of US taxpayer dollats on his last day in office....to the PLO! The Clint0n Foundation....and oh...let's not forget her "reset" button w Russia and the infamous Uranium sale so Billy Boy could receive his $500k speaking fees...

How dare u talk about President Trump....far better than the corrupt among us....and by the way....the firty Clinton / DNC list goes on and on...all about power!

Excellent article. I have just been corresponding with a former student of mine who is very angry about Brexit. It is ascribable to lies, he argues. Schlomo Ben Ali's argument is the best possible answer. Bad CEO's blame everything but themselves on what goes wrong when the company is in trouble. What is wrong is poor policy, and that was the CEO's fault, i.e. successive governments in the UK, and successive governments in western Europe.I would add one point about eastern European political cultures: all the countries of central eastern Europe in effect emerged from the second world war in 1990. 27 years is a very short time for political cultures to adapt not just from the inheritance of central eastern Europe, but to adapt to western constitutional democracy and its exigencies. They should have plenty more time to adapt. The last thing they need is to be lectured by Berlin and Brussels about what they should do.

they can avoid being lectured by leaving the EU. Entering EU was a social contract, entered into voluntarily. Many of these countries would not exist in their present form had it not been for the Cold War and the set of values that this war implied. They can try their luck with their neighbor to the east again, if they so wish.

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